Have you ever watched Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and merely observed the use of rectangular frames in Rosemary’s apartment? The doorways, wallpaper, sofa cushions, and the mystery behind the closet are all designed to correlate with one another. In addition, Roman Polanski shot a lot of the film in the apartment so the viewer is constantly looking through frames within frames. Are these details accidental? I think not. If you’re a sincere film buff, a fan of Polanski’s work, and have an acute eye for photography, then you’ll easily notice the director’s fondness in portraying the details of an apartment (Rosemary’s Baby, The Tenant, Repulsion), a cabin (Death and the Maiden), a hotel room (Frantic), and of course, the modern house in The Ghost Writer.
Roman Polanski’s films contain similar visual motifs, including encrypted codes that the protagonist must solve, water over corruption, reflections, isolated characters, knives, and secret rooms. All of these elements, and much more, create the master of suspense, next to Alfred Hitchcock. The Ghost Writer is Polanski’s latest film, and at 76, he still knows how to direct. Despite his checkered past, A-list actors are always jumping at the opportunity to work with him. It’s about the work, not the man’s flaws. The Ghost Writer is about a man (Ewan McGregor) who’s hired to write the memoirs of the former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan). The corruption involved between the United States government and the UK government is reminiscent of the city corruption Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) was involved in Chinatown (1974). The central characters from both The Ghost Writer and Chinatown are in way over their head.
Another element I loved about this film was the gloomy cinematography. The sun is rarely seen, the clouds are always present, and the photography has an overall grayish-pastel hue. I recall reading an interview with Woody Allen and he said that he always preferred to shoot in New York when it was grey and cloudy, because it was easier to control the lighting and bring out the background in the shot. Perhaps this wasn’t Roman Polanski’s intention, but I must say, the visual overtones in The Ghost Writer were consistent throughout. It’s refreshing to see an intelligent political thriller, which doesn’t depend on extreme violence, loud noises, and senseless montages to grab its viewers.
The film opens up with an abandoned car on a ferry and a man washed up on the sea shore, which goes back to the recurrent Polanski theme of water over corruption. No shot is unnecessary and every shot correlates with the film as a whole. Majority of the action is based on the dialogue and the subtle character interrelationships. Pay careful attention to the details and all will be revealed at a moderate pace.
Do you remember the anagram Mia Farrow solved with the scrabble cubes in Rosemary’s Baby? Do you remember how suspenseful that moment was? Well, there’s a similar scene in The Ghost Writer, and believe me, the revelation is just as suspenseful. Political cover-ups are one of my favorite kinds of mysteries, and what better guide to have than Roman Polanski, a master of suspense.
**** (out of four stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment